103rd Guards Airborne Division

The 103rd Guards Airborne Division was a division of the Soviet Army airborne corps which existed from 1944 to 1993. It was formed as a guards rifle division in Bykhaw, and it took part in the advance into Hungary and Austria (including the Vienna Offensive) during the last months of World War II. In 1946, it was redesignated as an airborne division, and it fought in the Soviet-Afghan War from December 1979 to 5 February 1989, being awarded the Order of Lenin. It was transferred to the KGB border troops in January 1990, but it was transferred back to the VDV on 23 September 1991. It was disbanded in 1993, a year after its transfer to the armed forces of Belarus, but it was later revived as a brigade of Belarusian special forces soldiers.